If you ever wondered the best way to maintain your birdbath, here are some tips from Emily Bishton, a local landscape designer and environmental educator :
Cleaning
your birdbath
Soak a large rag in a 50/50 water/white vinegar
mix
- Lay the rag so it is in contact with as much of the
birdbath surface as possible, and let sit for 1-2 minutes,
- Wring out the rag into the birdbath and then scrub the
birdbath with the water/vinegar solution, then soak up the solution with
the rag again
- Rinse and scrub the birdbath one more time with plain water, and rinse off all surrounding plants with plain water too
Vinegar can harm plants
by making the soil too acidic for their roots, so this method puts as little of
it as possible on them.
If there has been a lot
of fecal matter around the edge of the rim or you feel that more is needed,
then soak a rag in a 10:1 solution of water:bleach and follow the same process,
but be super careful about getting any of the bleach solution on surrounding
plants, even for a few minutes.
Emily Bishton
Rev. 7/12/14
